Rural service must for dental students

The Minister was speaking at the 28th National Conference of Indian Association of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics (IACDE) on Friday. “The awareness on dental treatment and services is very less in rural areas, even when the dental issue arises, they ignore it,” said the minister.

She added that the national conference, held for the first time in Andhra Pradesh, would help in raising awareness among the rural people who mostly ignore the dental health issues. D Mazumdar, president, DCI, said in his address that a three-month-long rural service would be made mandatory as part of the year-long internship meant for the BDS students. Only after the completion of the mandatory three-month rural service, they would be eligible for enrollment in DCI. “We would monitor closely on the mandatory rural service in all the dental colleges. If the college fails to implement the mandatory service, we would also go ahead to the extent of reviewing their recognition,” he said adding that the mandatory service might come into effect from the 2015 academic year.

I V Rao, Vice-Chancellor, NTR University of Health Sciences, said that current trends and advancements in dental health service would be discussed with various national and international luminaries at the four-day national conference.